Can you add a swing hitch later?

[ShrimpBurrito]

markandanne - do you happen to have a picture of the underside of your tongue showing how that metal mesh is welded to the tongue? I am going to do something like yours.....

Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave,

I can probably take some pictures this weekend - the tongue is sitting in the garage but I need better light for photos. The only two comments I can think of are that if you look at the 2nd or 4th photos you will notice that there is a large C beam that boxes off the tongue that mates with the smaller C beam welded onto the main trailer frame. The expanded steel extends to this C beam and I presume it is welded to it too (I'll double check this).

Also, you will notice an angle bracket in the photos that is attached to the underside of the expanded steel maybe a foot inside the C beam. I can't recall how it's attached but I'll check this weekend. I'm sure the angle bracket is for support so that the middle of the tray doesn't sag.

Anyway, I'll let you know more this weekend and I'll try to take some useful photos.

Mark

Here are pictures of the swing hitch installed on my 2720SL by The Car Show. Note the two bolts holding the flat face plates together.

Those are good pictures showing the construction of the hinge. Mine is set up the same way, including hinge pins on both ends and dual bolts in the middle of the beams. My upright tanks were moved onto the front swing hitch so that the swing hitch is further back, with the expanded steel welded to the bottom. But otherwise they look the same.

I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow or Sunday and post them.

[Bill]

OK, I'm slowly getting in sync here. It looks like The Car Show does two different kinds of swing hitches. Mark and Anne have a Car Show mod on their 2720. The new cross-beam in their photo is much farther back on the frame than on the swing hitch that comes from the TM factory. The result is that with the hitch removed, the TM is shortened by about 3 feet or even more, rather 2 feet as in the factory swing hitch.

Larry Nussbaum has a Car Show swing hitch on his 2720SL. In this mod, the new cross member is forwards of the horizontal propane tanks. Aside from the addition of the two bolts, it looks very similar to the swing hitch provided by the factory. With the hitch swung or removed, the TM will be about 2 feet shorter than an unmodified TM.

My comment above - "The Car Show mod would not work on a 2720SL" - was referring to the first mod. I did not recognize that The Car Show performed two types of mods.

So if you are thinking about a swing-hitch retrofit and you don't have an SL model, it appears you have two choices.

Bill

Hi Dave,

We took some pictures over the weekend, and I just got to uploading them. Here are a couple of (compressed) pictures which hopefully give you some ideas. Basically, the CS cut a triangular piece of expanded steel to fit the space, and welded it onto the swing hitch from below on the sides and from the side to the rear C beam. This appears to be spot welded about every 2 inches or so, maybe every other or 2 out of every 3 places the steel crossed the sides, and on every intersection of the rear to the C beam. The 6 inches or so of the front edge is unsupported. The center is supported with a welded on 1.5" angle bracket, and they used a short strip of steel the same thickness as the expanded steel as a spacer on the ends. Hopefully these pictures illustrate this.

My uncompressed photos are 1.9M each, but I may be able to strike a compromise if you want to see something larger (or I can email you the originals).

Let me know if there's anything else you want to see.

[ShrimpBurrito]

Thanks for posting the pics, Mark. Very helpful. I was going to have a welder /sheet metal guy do this, but he wants about $250 for parts and labor. About $40 of that is for extra material I don't need but he has to buy because his wholesaler won't sell him a half sheet of expanded metal. Granted, I know it would be a precision job, but since this is something that doesn't require such precision, I may just buy a piece of expanded metal for about $40 and somehow fasten it myself.

Dave

[AZgang]

I know this is an old thread, but how did this change to the tongue last?

Any issues with cracking or failures?

Was there a great change in the overall tongue weight by moving the tanks forward?

Thanks for helping out a newbie.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by AZgang

I know this is an old thread, but how did this change to the tongue last?

Any issues with cracking or failures?

Was there a great change in the overall tongue weight by moving the tanks forward?

Thanks for helping out a newbie.

If you use a certified welder to build the swing-away hitch, there is no reason for the welds to have issues.

Moving the tanks forward would not change the tongue weight measurably. Maybe a pound or two.

Here are some pics of the individual pieces that need to be cut and welded. It isn't really as complicated as it appears.

[AZgang]

Could I use a Weight Distribution Hitch with this setup?

If so would I want to connect the chains before the swing away joint or after?

Thanks again.